Land Use in Lake-Country Wisconsin
Lake-Country is the informal name for the land surrounding my home, which exists in the northwestern part of Waukesha County. There are over twenty lakes in the region surrounding Pewaukee, Oconomowoc, Okauchee and Delafield. My home exists in Oconomowoc and the boarding Town of Summit.
The name Oconomowoc is of native descent, though the direct translation is unclear. It could either mean “gathering of the waters” or “they [beavers] build dams”. The area was inhabited by Potawatomi, Menomonee and Ho-Chunk people and so those who speak those languages or Anishinaabemowin - an umbrella term for closely-connected Potawatomi, Ojibwe and Odawa languages, sometimes have different translations. Unfortunately there is minimal recorded land use history of the time before settlers of the area.
The first settlers reached the area in the early 1830s by founders of Milwaukee. John S. Rockwell is one of the most prominent early residents who set up a grist mill for flour as well as the first hotel in the settlement.
Land use in Oconomowoc consisted of farming as well as being a popular summer destination for wealthy families from Milwaukee and Chicago. You can still do historic boat tours of Oconomowoc Lake in the summer to hear about the history of the mansions of the lake.
The Watertown Plank Road connected Oconomowoc, Pewaukee, Watertown and Waukesha to Milwaukee. This infrastructure encouraged further settlement and eventually the Milwaukee and Watertown Railroad. In the late 1800s Lake Country rivaled Lake Geneva as a summer getaway and became a space for notable people such as Increase Lapham, a well known naturalist, archive of native effigy mounds and the namesake of Lapham Peak, a section of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Another notable name of the area is Pabst, and yes I mean the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee. The family established a farm outside of Oconomowoc that was used for recreation and to raise Holstein cows and thoroughbred horses. Now the Pabst farmland is owned by the city and is slowly being developed into residential areas (like where I live) and commercial centers.
Due to the recreational and agricultural use in Oconomowoc and the surrounding Lake Country, an ecological focus is the use of energy and a preservation of the lakes. Like Madison runoff and groundwater absorbs many of the herbicides and fertilizers from suburban lawn care and farmland and thus movements are being made to have more sustainable and ecologically beneficial practices to preserve what makes Oconomowoc iconic.
Sources:
https://www.wuwm.com/regional/2021-10-08/oconomowoc-nagawicka-okauchee-unpacking-wisconsins-native-place-names
https://native-land.ca/
https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/oconomowoc/
https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/lake-country/
https://oconomowoc.org/about/history-the-area/
https://www.oconomowoc-wi.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1633/SustainabilityPlanFinal_reduced
Hi Madeline, I too wrote about how my hometown is seeing more development around the lakeshore and how erosion is causing ecological harm. Something that I forgot to mention which you do in your post is that development also creates runoff. Is there any specific example you've seen, such as water quality degradation or habitat destruction, with the discharge of harmful chemicals into the area lakes of your hometown?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting Madeline! There is not much freshwater in my hometown, so I thought it was very interesting to read about a town where freshwater is a major attraction. You talked about the effects of nutrient runoff into lakes being an ecological issue in Oconomowoc. I was curious about the fishing practices in these lakes, since they are a popular destination for recreational travel in the summers as you mentioned. Do you know anything about the fishing management, or a potential ecological issue of overfishing in your hometown?
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